A BLACK Country woman who insists she was wrongly convicted of killing her adopted son with a salt overdose today spoke of her "living nightmare" in jail.

Angela Gay, from Halesowen, told of her ordeal as she awaits an appeal over the poisoning of three-year-old Christian Blewitt.

In a letter to her parents Margaret and Roy Swain, 37-year-old Angela wrote: "I know I must stay strong but it is so difficult sometimes. Nothing on the outside could ever compare against the nightmare I am living in."

Angela was convicted of killing the toddler with husband Ian, also 37, by administering a lethal dose of salt at the family home in Lutley Lane, Halesowen.

The Gays were jailed for five years in January after being convicted of manslaughter but have always protested their innocence.

In another letter Angela, who spends up to 23 hours a day in a segregated cell in Buckley Hall Prison, Rochdale, Lancashire, wrote: "No words can describe the devastation and emptiness I feel inside - being kept apart from you like this is so cruel.

"It is tearing me apart. I never realised heartache could hurt this much. When I'm writing to you, I imagine I'm actually saying the words."

Lawyers acting for the couple worked on the cases of wronglyconvicted mums Angela Cannings and Sally Clark. They believe investigations will prove Christian, who was five weeks into a 13-week trial adoption placement, died because he did not metabolise salt properly.

Mrs Swain, aged 62, of Cradley Heath, said: "Angela has found it very hard in prison. But she is feeling stronger now because there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.

"All we have ever wanted to know is what happened to Christian. Angela and Ian just want the truth about how he died."